Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 6: Amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in J&K, former minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla today asked LG Administration to increase RT-PCR tests, strictly enforce test-track-treat protocol and speed up the pace of vaccination to cover all priority groups.He said keeping in view the fresh surge in COVID-19 cases, the new positive cases, detected as a result of intensive testing, need to be isolated or quarantined at the earliest and provided timely treatment.
“Union Territory administration should strictly enforce the test-track-treat protocol in all parts of J&K, ensure observance of COVID-19-appropriate behaviour by everyone and, scale up the vaccination drive to cover all the target groups,” he said.
He expressed grave concern over the handling of the Covid-19 situation in the country, while calling for speeding up vaccination and stepping up efforts to deal with the challenge in the Union Territory. Bhalla said the Centre had failed to gauge the severity of the second wave of the pandemic and did not take timely stock of the facilities in Jammu and Kashmir. He expressed concern over the loss of lives across the country due to a lack of oxygen supply and shortage of vaccines, which were exported to other countries, and said it was a “highly irresponsible” act of the Narendra Modi government.
Bhalla observed that situation has taken a very serious and ugly turn and the country has occupied the top spot in the world in terms of the number of Covid cases, he said. He urged the government to step up the ongoing vaccination drive and ensure the necessary facilities in various hospitals on a war footing. It may not be possible to get the jab for all since we already lack in the required resources and infrastructure, considering the size of our population. Vaccination is emerging out as the only way to win the war against the pandemic. But, the recent emerging news of shortage of vaccine stocks with the states is a cause for concern.
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